


Leap of Faith

by letsleepingwerewolveslie (aishitaeru)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek hates stairs, Family, Fluff, Gen, Hale Family Feels, Pack Feels, Pre-Canon, Short & Sweet, The Hale Family, baby!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-12
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-19 06:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aishitaeru/pseuds/letsleepingwerewolveslie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Can we just have a fic where Talia is introducing toddler!Derek to stairs and there’s just a complete tantrum and he breaks away and somersaults down them (like a slinky) and then hides under the couch."</p><p>or the one where Derek hates the stairs. Always has and always will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leap of Faith

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in response to a random tumblr prompt. Here you go, ladyw1inter.
> 
> For those of you who want to read it/reblog it on tumblr here you go:  
> http://tinyurl.com/la23hp2
> 
> Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, I wrote this at around 1am.

The first time Talia tries to introduce Derek to the stairs the tiny boy cowers behind her legs, his own chubby limbs shaking still, even though he had been walking for a few months. 

She understands why it might be scary, the stairs are high from the ground and not exactly a slide like the ones Laura played with at the playground. After the first attempt she lets it go, knowing it’s still easier to simply pick Derek up and carry him down the steps, and do the same as they go up. He’s still a toddler, only says a few words, and prefers crawling over stepping. He’s the opposite of Laura, who ran as soon as she found her balance, and got up should she fall, laughing at the exciting prospect. Talia had always heard boys got into more trouble than girls, but at that moment she couldn’t fathom it, remembering her daughter taking the steps two at a time as soon as her legs were long enough, climbing the banister and bookshelves and trees outside like she was part ape, not wolf.

Derek is shy and quiet unless he’s tired and gets fussy, so Talia thinks nothing of it and continues to placate Derek and carry him around. She knows that as soon as he starts walking he’ll become independent and never want his mother’s doting. She’ll miss it, so she cherishes carrying around her baby boy for a few more weeks.

The next time they attempt the stairs, Talia is determined to show Derek that they aren’t scary. But the little boy cringes at the height, tries to wiggle out of his mother’s grasp and stay up stairs. Talia keeps her hold, eyes widening when Derek thrashes in her grip, face turning red from his fit, screaming with his eyes clenched tight and Talia’s concerned instantly. Derek isn’t the sort of child to react like this, to be so vocal and it has Talia worried. She wonders if phobias can form so early, especially from something Derek had really no experience with. He had no problems when Talia carried him down, and even laughed when he saw Laura hanging from the banister, so why was he so afraid to go down them?

After a few minutes, and Talia picking up the boy and taking them into the bathroom to clean his face and let him calm down, things seem better. Derek isn’t upset any longer and he’s seemingly forgotten about the incident, back to the calm little boy she was used to. Perhaps it was a fluke, she figures and tries again.

The instant they come to the top of the stairs Derek cowers into her neck. Talia can’t have this, can’t have her only son afraid of the stairs, can’t have him so against the common mode of transportation. He’ll be hindered for the rest of his life if he can’t go down them, or even attempt to edge his way down. The image of her son growing into a man and still refusing to go down the stairs has her pulling Derek away from her neck, sitting him down on the top steps, hands secure around his waist as he looks down the flight.

It makes him freeze, and she holds her breathe, curious and afraid she just did something even more traumatizing for the boy.

Then all hell breaks loose, and the little boy’s claws—claws that he never uses on his mother, the Alpha—dig into her arms and her eyes flash red as her own hands let loose in order to stop her claws from doing any damage, and Derek is rolling—practically somersaulting—down the stairs.

She’s on her feet instantly, going down the stairs after her son, who had landed at the bottom with no injuries, at least from what she can smell, and she tries to sweep her son up, tries to apologize even though he can’t completely understand, because her heart is clenched in her chest and she feels like crying for what she’s done. For what she let happened. Derek flinches away from her touch and crawls with a speed she had yet to see, into the living room and under the couch.

Talia’s heart breaks when she sees her baby cowering under the furniture, and she’s afraid she’s broken her son’s trust, but when she pulls him own he curls into her and she’s so relieved she falls onto the couch, clutching Derek close and whispering into his ear. “I love you; I’m sorry, no more stairs for a while, okay?"

Derek whimpers and hides in his mother’s neck.

They don’t attempt the stairs for another year.

And even then Derek hates it, stepping carefully down the stairs, holding onto the banister’s bars, grip tight in his tiny fist, with Talia or Laura always holding his hand. It’s a long year of helping Derek up and down throughout the house.

When Derek’s six, and stuck at the top of the stairs with Talia out to get groceries and Laura’s locked up in her room, music blasting and refusing to help Derek down, he stares down the twenty steps with fear and frustration. He knows, from Laura’s words, that he should be old enough to go down the stairs on his own. He’s being a baby, and should grow up so he doesn’t need his sister’s help.

So he jumps. He doesn’t know why, but somehow his six-year-old brain decided it was quicker, easier, than taking his time down the wooden staircase.

It’s not easier, but it is quicker, and much more painful.

He breaks his ankle, and his crying has Laura down the stairs quickly enough. She calls their mother, who comes home as soon as possible without calling attention to herself, and scolds Laura for not helping Derek.

Before Laura can get into any more trouble, Derek tearfully tells their mother that he knows he can’t be a big boy until he can go down the stairs by himself. It isn’t Laura’s fault.

By the time he’s eight, the stairs aren’t hard to go down, though he still hates them. Still has nightmares about falling.

At ten he jumps again, running down the hallway because Uncle Peter came to visit and he’s not thinking when he sees the older man at the front door, hugging Laura. He could hear his uncle’s laughter from his room and ran, gaining momentum and leaping at the top of the stairs, flying through the air.

He lands feet away from Laura, startling her into their uncle’s embrace, and Peter throws his head back and laughs when Derek stumbles and falls backwards onto his butt during landing.

Derek’s never been a fan of stairs, and Talia’s heart stutters every time she sees her son jump from the top of them. She admonishes him each time, but Derek doesn’t stop, goes as far as to roll his eyes at her when she does it to him as a teenager. He tells her she should try it sometime and Talia tells him he shouldn’t show off so much; humans can’t jump from the top of the stairs and land without getting hurt.

Derek doesn’t really listen, but she never hears of him getting in trouble for it at school, or hears any word of her son’s strange behavior around town.

She figures it isn’t such a problem; her son’s never liked stairs, but at least he’s learned the appropriate time and place for his antics.


End file.
